I'm bringing this over from "mom and pop stores"... Let's hear what is available outside Korea.

The Lemon wrote:

My wife (who is Korean) and I lived in Halifax together for three years, and she was never lacking any basic Korean ingredients

Could you elaborate, please? How 'basic'..
What kind of things were you unable to get? I'm heading back to Canada (Calgary) with my KHubby and not sure what to really stock up on. I'm specifically worried about -

Hi - asked my wife (buying Korean food in Canada expert) and she says not to worry about kim or dried fish/squid. She says prices were reasonable, and if she couldn't get Korean kim she could get the Japanese equivalent without any trouble. She also pointed out that the Korean community in Calgary is exponentially larger than the one in Halifax, so it should be a cinch to find whatever you need. Kojujang, sesame oil, chop-chae, even frozen sun-dae (yick!) - it's all there.

My wife and I have found just about everything at the local Korean supermarkets (two in Ottawa- there must be at the very least one in Calgary!). Kim and odaeng- no problem, you can find it in Chinese grocers as well. Loblaws chain also carries some Korean foodstuffs. Of course being import food here, some of it can get pricy (I've resigned myself to not eating ojingo-po, it's goes for $10cdn for 500g), but if your husband needs a fix of comfort food, I'm sure you'll be able to find it. The biggest thing we miss in terms of food are yangnyum(sp?) chicken and takkalbi restaurants (and mother-in-law's home cooking).

You can also order Korean foodstuffs over the internet to ship anywhere in N.A. (the company is based in the States somewhere)- if you're interested let me know and I'll ask my wife to dig up the info.

I studied in Edmonton and visited Calgery while I was there. Calgery has a large korean community, so you don't have to worry about getting korean stuff there, but price wise, it is a little overpriced than here in korea of course. So here is the list that you'd better pack.
First, gochujang for sure, because taste and quality is much better. some dried fish and kim as much as you can since those are not easily perishable. [b]Sesami oil[/b, redpepper powder,
well, what else??? I can't think of anything now. If you need more info, just let me know

Newport News in Virginia has a large Korean engineering contingent, so there's a big old supermarket that some Koreans took over and the entire shopping center, except for one store, is owned by Koreans and supplies Korean goodies of some sort. The restaurant I went to with some friends doesn't serve kalbi or samgyaetang(personal faves), but what it does serve is 100% authentic good stuff. And it serves pretty much...everything else I can think of in regards to Korean food.

The supermarket doesn't have everything I can get in Korea, but it's got a lot of stuff. Even has some of the snack, like the little prawn chips.